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A French-Japanese consortium has won a contract for the operation and maintenance of the Dubai Metro, replacing UK-based Serco which has been on board since its launch in 2009.
The new contract, which also includes the operation of the Dubai Tram, covers a total of 15 years, including six renewable years, and is worth about AED542 million per year.
The consortium consists of three companies – Keolis, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engineering and Mitsubishi Corporation.
The award of the contract follows a public tender released by the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) in which four consortiums and international firms specialised in rail operation and maintenance took part.
Proposals made were analysed and the contract was awarded to the French-Japanese consortium for submitting the best technical and financial proposals, a statement said.
The deal signals the end of a long-running collaboration with Serco which first provided pre-launch consultancy and planning to the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) from 2007, and began operating and maintaining the initial 10 stations on the Red Line from its official opening and inauguration in September 2009.
It later signed contract extensions in 2013 and 2019 taking its association with Dubai Metro until September 2021.
The consortium will take over operations on September 8 with preparations being made for the handover of assets and systems from the current operator.
Mattar Mohammed Al Tayer, director-general and chairman of the RTA, said: “RTA is keen on ensuring the highest standards of security and safety for the metro and tram riders and achieving competitive performance indicators of operation and punctuality of journeys besides improving the quality of services provided to metro and tram riders. Moreover, the operation of the metro and tram requires experience in the scheduling of the metro and tram services and all the sophisticated mechanical, computing and electronic operational systems.”
He added: “The outsourcing of these jobs will also reduce the operational and maintenance costs of the metro and tram by benefiting from the high performance of those companies in delivering top quality services at lower costs and their continuous efforts to reduce operational costs.”
According to the contract, the consortium will undertake the operation and maintenance services of the Dubai Metro Red and Green lines as well as Route 2020.
It will also cater to the operation of Dubai Tram (pictured above), and all assets of the metro and tram networks including trains, control centres, stations and the associated infrastructure.
“The contract also covers the operation and maintenance of the automated metro and fare systems including the selling and recharging of nol cards at the metro stations.
Keolis Group CEO Marie-Ange Debon added: “We are honoured to have been selected, along with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Engineering and Mitsubishi Corporation, by RTA to operate and maintain Dubai’s sophisticated driverless metro system and tram system… We look forward to nurturing a collaborative partnership with RTA to deliver their vision of smart, sustainable and convenient public transportation for the city.”
Dubai’s metro and tram network spans about 100km and has 64 stations served by 129 metro trains and 11 trams. The total number of metro and tram riders is about 210 million riders per year.
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